


Prisoner of My Past

by allin_ev_itable



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Definitely a fix it fic now, Gen, I'm not as proud as this one, Post canon, Read my first one first pls, Sequel, Tony Stark as Peter Parker's AI, not beta read we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 14:31:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18701503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allin_ev_itable/pseuds/allin_ev_itable
Summary: Peter's finally figured it out, with help from Tony.Sequel to "The Postcards Protocol"





	Prisoner of My Past

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'm not as proud of this one as the other one.
> 
> But please go read The Postcard Protocol first if you haven't yet. It might help make more sense.
> 
> The title is a song from Spies Are Forever because I'm still a musical nerd at heart

 The end of the pencil tapped against his desk for the thousandth time, and Peter was tempted to just call it a night and actually get something resembling a good night’s sleep. But he was so close to figuring this all out, papers with scattered equations and notes covering his entire desk and a corkboard on his wall. 

 However, being so close to the answer meant he had now hit the giant roadblock that he couldn’t get past. Bruce had explained the rules of time travel to him when he’d told him how they’d done their “time heist”, which meant that even if he was able to go back to the battle and could find a way to win it without Tony having to die in the process, he’d still come back a reality in which that didn’t happen. A reality where Morgan still didn’t have a father.

 Unless he could find a way to manipulate his own timeline without splitting it, which involved hours upon hours of thinking and a floor littered in crumpled papers.

 He wasn’t even close to figuring this all out. In order to pull this off, he needed to find out how to even win the battle without Tony’s self sacrifice. Doctor Strange had said there was only one outcome in fourteen million that they would win. Would Peter saving Tony’s life change that?

 With a heavy sigh, the teenage turned in his office chair and glanced at the mask on his nightstand. He picked it up and tugged it on, smiling softly at the greeting from his AI.

 “Hey, Mr. Stark.”

_ “It’s late, kid. Why are you still awake?” _

__ “I’m working on…something. Something important, but I don’t know where to go from here. I’m stuck and it’s frustrating because I know I’m so close and-”

_ “Initiating File: Pep Talk” _

__ Peter sighed in relief, thankful Tony had put something along those lines into the Postcards Protocol for him to hear at a later date.

_ “Hey, Pete. I don’t know how well this is gonna go but at least you can’t say I didn’t try. I’ve been sitting here for hours trying to figure out this time travel thing. It’s crazy, I know. But I can’t help but feel I’m so close and maybe if I keep thinking I’ll crack it. So I figured I’d turn it into some kinda life lesson for you, end up in your Nobel Prize speech. There’s always that point right before everything falls into place when you’re stuck and have no idea how to keep going, and it’s the most annoying thing in the world. You know you’re so close to solving everything but the matter of getting there is beyond you. It’s at that point that you can’t give up. You gotta keep going, kid. You’re crazy smart. If anyone can do it, it’s you. Or me, but if you’re listening to this then I’m probably not there to help you, for whatever reason that might be. Anyway, I believe in you, Peter. You got this.” _

__ Peter sighed and turned back towards his desk, keeping the mask on as he gently set his head down and let his forehead hit the stack of papers in front of him. A few minutes passed as he let his thoughts gather, the silence comforting for the first time in a while. 

_ “A bit of...mild inspiration, I’d like to see if it checks out.” _

__ Peter raised his head at the voice that had continued, confused at what it had said. 

_ “So, if I could run one last sim before we pack it in for the night. This time in the shape of a mobius strip, inverted please.” _

__ Oh...Tony forgot to end the recording. Peter sighed and was about to take off the mask, not wanting to invade private tests, but perhaps it could be useful to him. He’d said he was working on time travel, trying to figure out how to go back and get the stones to reverse the snap, so maybe it could help Peter go back and save him?

 He listened as the man rambled on, the sound of technology buzzing as he toyed with it in his simulation. Peter wished he could see what was happening. But he was happy enough that he had audio.

_ “And don’t worry if it doesn’t pan out, I’m just kinda…” _

__ He heard FRIDAY speak, telling Tony the model had been rendered, and a loud thud followed. There were a few seconds of what he assumed was stunned silence before he heard Tony yell.

_ “Shit!” _

__ Followed by the sound of a little girl repeating him.

_ Morgan. _

 He quickly yanked off his mask, catching his breath when he realized he had been holding it for who knows how long. 

 A look over his papers, and he was suddenly seeing it all in a whole new light. A few more hours passed of furious scribbling and the recording on repeat as he hung on to each and every word. 

_ You gotta keep going, kid. _

 It was only when the sun was rising and he needed to get ready for school that he took a step back, covering his mouth in shock as he examined the papers he’d put on the board in front of him. “Start a recording.”

_ “Recording now.” _

 “It’s me again, Mr. Stark. I uh...I figured it out. I found a way to get you back and not destroy the universe…” he sighed, and his eyes landed one of the photographs tucked in the corner of his desk. Him and Tony, standing next to each other and holding up his certificate from Stark Industries. The postcard he had purchased leaned against it, the words “Missing you!” becoming his continued motivation.

 “...But you’re not going to like it.”

**~*~**

 

Peter approached the machine as his heart raced, consciously controlling his breathing to avoid a panic attack. He looked over at Scott, who was standing behind the controls with a small smile. Somehow, Peter had convinced the man to help him with this by explaining his plan. Well, most of his plan. He left out the one part that would make Scott refuse to do this and tell everyone what Peter was planning to do.

 He stepped up to the platform and looked over at the man, who nodded and began to fire it up. However, just as Peter’s helmet flipped over his head, the doors across the room opened and a flood of people rushed in, all sharing terrified looks. Especially May, whole looked the most shook up. She must’ve gone into his room and seen his work.

 “Don’t!” May screamed, running faster when she saw Scott ready to press the button. “Peter, get down from there right now!” 

 The boy opened his helmet and shook his head, not moving from where he stood. “I can’t, May, I finally figured it out! I can’t just ignore the fact that I can do this!”

 “Figured out what? What are you doing?!”

 “I can bring him back!”

 The room suddenly froze, and grew incredibly quiet. Everyone had their own look of shock, but Pepper looked like she was about to cry. Rhodey did too, but he hid it behind the stoic expression he typically maintained. 

 May blinked for a second before taking a step forward. “Peter...he’s gone, honey,” she tried to reason with him, the fear still prominent in her eyes.

 “Not if I do this. I...I have to. I know how to do it, I’ve planned it to the second- I can’t just let it go when there’s a chance to bring him back!” 

 Hope turned her head from the crowd to look at Scott, both of them sharing a look. If anyone could understand that the most, it was her. She walked over to the equipment, ignoring shouts as she began to get everything ready to go again. “Peter, get ready to go.”

 The boy was torn between doing what May asked or listening to Hope, eventually choosing the latter and letting the helmet pull over his head just as soon as Hope counted down to one and sent him flying through...well, time.

 

**~*~**

 

The next thing Peter knew, he was back in the throes of battle, dodging aliens and trying to remain invisible to everyone else as his spider suit replaced the one he’d worn to travel. He began to swing through the waging war, looking for two beings in particular.

 There he was. The hero himself, struggling to get the gauntlet off of the purple monster. Peter shook his head to keep from freezing up as he hit the ground and sprinted over. He hid behind a pile of debris, waiting patiently for the right time. Just as Thanos threw Tony aside, Peter launched. The ineffective snap made Thanos looked down at the gauntlet in confusion, noticing the stones were missing, and the spiderling immediately shot two webs in two different directions.

 One pulled the gauntlet from Thanos’ arm, the other yanked the stones before they attached to the metal covering Tony’s hand.

 His mind was on auto-pilot as he put each stone into the gauntlet and threw it onto his entirely too small arm, and a surge of pain rushed through him. It was too much, and his brain was screaming at him for it, but he was expecting this. He knew what he was getting himself into.

 It was at his desk only a couple days prior that Peter Parker knew he’d have to die to get Tony back. But he had come to terms with that. Morgan needed her father, and Peter knew that too well after growing up without one himself. He was willing to make that sacrifice. The world still needed Tony Stark. It would be okay without Peter Parker.

 He heard Tony’s loud gasp and opened his eyes to see the man’s horrified expression, followed with a loud scream of “No!” right before he snapped his fingers.

 The first thing he noticed was that he was on the ground. The energy had been too much for his smaller frame to handle, and had knocked him to the ground as soon as the snap had happened. The next thing was that the entire right side of his body was immobile, and in extreme pain. He could barely register what was happening as he was ever so gently moved to lean against the same pile of debris he had hidden behind earlier, his eyes meeting Tony’s terrified ones. 

 “Oh my god...no...no, Pete, what the hell were you thinking?” he asked, his voice cracking.

 “Um, Mr. Stark?”

 Peter looked over Tony’s shoulder to see...himself. Well, his past self, beaten but not badly burned and close to death. 

 Tony followed his gaze to see the other spiderling, glancing back and forth between the two of them as the others began to walk up to them. “Who- how- what-?”

 “...Future…” was all that Peter was about to get out, his voice barely above a whisper as he used all his remaining strength to raise his still functioning arm and show Tony the device on his hand. “...Fixed...GPS...h-had to…” he took a quick, shaky breath, feeling himself fading. “Had to s-save you…”

 His eyes looked over everyone standing in front of him. Tony, Rhodey, Pepper, Steve, all surrounded by a swarm of people who had stood up to fight without any question.

 His family. The fight was over, and his family would be okay.

 He was able to pull off a small, content smile before travel suit covered him once more and he was gone.

 

**~*~**

 

He wasn’t standing up for longer than a second when he arrived back on the platform before he fell onto his knees, the helmet keeping him from hitting his head before it flew back and allowing him to get more air.

 A chorus of screaming and crying followed, but Peter was too tired to make any sense of it.

 If Peter hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought he was dead. But he assumed the afterlife wasn’t accompanied by the sound consistent beeping, so he figured that wasn’t the case. But as consciousness came up fast, he began to fully take in the sounds around him.

_  “...and not destroy the universe...but you’re not gonna like it.” _

 Peter tried to open his eyes, the brightness irritating his already sensitive eyes. 

 “I can’t believe he did this.” Aunt May.

 “Well, he did it...and he was right. I didn’t like it. Not one bit.”

 The voice almost made Peter bolt upright from where he was lying down, but even opening his eyes was proving to be difficult right now. He settled for trying to speak. “...M-Mister St...ark?” he asked slowly, his voice sounding gravelly and slurred.

 When he was finally able to open his eyes and keep them open, he was met with the one and only Tony Stark, and Peter was instantly in tears.

 The months of grieving, the weeks of equations and problem solving, the countless sleepless nights in fear of nightmares spent trying to figure out how to get him back...and here he was.

 “You’re here.”

 Tony offered him a teary smile in return, gently patting the top of Peter’s hand. “Yeah Pete, I’m here.”

 “How…’s Morgan?”

 “She’s okay. We’re all okay. You did it, kiddo.”

 Peter let out a sigh of relief. It worked. Everything was okay again.

 Well…almost everything.

 

**~*~**

 

 Peter found out from Bruce that he had been unconscious for nearly a month. The snap had drained him of all the energy he had, and he was quite honestly confused how Peter had survived. He had simply chalked it up to being a mix between Peter’s powers and sheer luck, perhaps a miracle or two for good measure. But it was still nearly three weeks after the spiderling had woken up before he was practically back to normal. Or at least, as close to normal as he could get. He would have to go through several weeks of physical therapy to get back the mobility on the right side of his body back. But he was alright with that.

 Even so, there was one thing he still needed to do. There was another part of his plan that he hadn’t shared with a single person.

 Peter had just gotten home from one of his usual visits to see the Starks, but rather than ask Happy to drive him home, he’d asked to be taken to the new compound. Making sure to thank Happy first, he closed the car door behind him and early made his way into the building, scanning his badge and smiling when he caught sight of Hope, Scott, and Bruce all standing around.

 “What’s going on, Peter? Your message sounded important,” Bruce asked, looking the least tense of them all.  _ That wouldn’t last long. _

 With a determined smile, Peter pressed a button, revealing his travel suit, which was now decked out to look similar to his newly repaired Iron Spider suit.

 “Let’s go get Nat back.”

**Author's Note:**

> hhhhhhh I tried man this is it
> 
> STALK ME CORNER  
> Twitter: @allin_ev_itable  
> Tumblr: @allin-ev-itable


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